Union urges NYCHA to adopt its mold abatement plan

By Michael Gartland

|new york daily news|

Nov 30, 2018 | 5:00 PM

Norma Concepcion shows where paint is peeling from walls in almost every room of her home and forming mold. NYCHA tenants condemned the city for not making repairs where needed at Breukelen Houses in Canarsie Brooklyn May 7, 2018. (Todd Maisel New York Daily News)

The union whose members install pipes in city buildings is urging NYCHA to adopt its new plan to rid apartments of dangerous mold.

In a white paper obtained exclusively by the Daily News, the Enterprise Association of Steamfitters Local 638 laid out the proposal, which calls for moldy sheetrock to be removed and antiquated and leaky pipes to be replaced in one fell swoop.

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“That’s where the mold will start. When the water gets in there, you’ve got to take everything out,” said Local 638 President Patrick Dolan Jr. “It’s always better to do the job right the first time.”

The union’s recommendations come just a day after a judge approved a separate NYCHA plan to tackle mold in public housing.

That plan is focused on apartments where tenants suffer from asthma and other respiratory ailments. Under it, the Housing Authority is required to clean up simple cases of mold within a week and more complicated cases in 15 days.

But the union says cleaning up the mold won’t fully address what tends to typically be the root cause of the problem: leaky pipes, which in some cases are more than 50 years old.

“Building management or construction workers without adequate training have resorted to quick, temporary fixes such as excessively bandaging and patching failing pipes,” the report states. “This conceals the underlying problem and leads to a build-up of moisture or humidity that can promote and sustain even more mold growth.”

The 8,000-member union contends that if NYCHA’s removing the mold, it should get rid of damaged sheetrock and failing pipes as part of the job too.

It also argues that its proposal is consistent with Mayor de Blasio’s environmental initiatives as well as a new city law that goes into effect January requiring property owners to investigate dwellings when old tenants move out and remove materials that might exacerbate illnesses like asthma.

The report does not offer a total price tag for the work though, and neither did Dolan. It does estimate that along with $5 million in savings NYCHA is expected to realize due to recent heating infrastructure repairs, it would save $80 million in total savings if it replaces all its leaky pipes.

A NYCHA spokeswoman declined to comment on the report’s merits, but pointed to the deep financial hole NYCHA is struggling to dig its way out of.